WiFi provider Skyblox is first company to raise funding via Twitter

Skyblox, an Atlanta company that provides WiFi coverage to restaurants and retail stores, says it accepted funding money over Twitter using a service called Twipay, thus becoming the first company to raise a round of funding using micro-blogging.

This is a bit of a gimmick, because the tweet used by its funder, private equity firm SGIO LLC, included a payment of only a single dollar. The tweet promised that it was just the first of a $100,000 allocation for the first round of funding. So, while the full funding didn’t actually take place over Twitter, the action does herald a trend nonetheless: Increasingly Twitter is being built into our modes of communication, and these sorts of payments (through Twitter-based payment services like Twitpay) are likely to pick up. We wrote recently about how Twitpay is using PayPal to make the payments over Twitter.

As for SkyBlox, it was started in early 2008 by members of the former EarthLink Wi-Fi team. It has spread its WiFi offerings from Atlanta, to include Chicago and Denver. SkyBlox says its mobile platform allows local businesses to communicate with their mobile customers in real time.

Twitpay is also based in Atlanta.

Source : Venture Beat, August 19, 2009